Stephen King fest

[queenshall]

Got up this morning and my better half has bought me the rest of the Dark Tower series from Wizards and Glass onwards. My birthday , bless her !!

[treeduck]

QUOTE (queenshall @ Apr 29 2009, 02:19 AM)

Got up this morning and my better half has bought me the rest of the Dark Tower series from Wizards and Glass onwards. My birthday , bless her !!

Very nice. I've still got the last three to read. Wizard and Glass is my favourite in the series so far. Go back to the first page of this thread for my thoughts on it, after you've read it of course, I don't want to spoil it for you.

 

[treeduck]

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7128/lisey.jpg

 

Comparing Lisey's Story to other King books is quite difficult as it's a weird novel, but after a little thought I'd say this one is a bloated cross between Delores Claibourne, Gerald's Game, The Dark Half and Secret Window, Secret Garden (the villain was even from the same place that John Shooter wa supposed to be from) but written in the same rambling self-indulgent style as Bag of Bones with a fistful of Rose madder thrown in for bad measure. This is a novel where things stall for long periods for naval gazing and reminiscing and a peculiar tendency to dwell on the small stuff (don't sweat the small stuff Steve).

 

If this was the kind of novel that King started his career with back in 1974 and continued with thereafter, I never would have got interested in him in the first place and not only would he not be the huge name in fiction that he is today I'm pretty sure he'd most likely be long out of print. It may be his favourite but it's long way from being mine.

 

Lisey's Story is not terrible but it's boring and i found it a real chore to get through, the hum drum stuff swamps any good parts. So yeah it's not terrible but it's still among the worst ten novels of King's career. All in all it's pretty poor.

 

I think King wanted it to be about the perfect marriage, or the perfect dark marriage story, or the story of his own marriage disguised as someone elses or a book about marriage disguised as a thriller with all the supernatural stuff wrapped up and stuffed deep inside it so the high brow critics don't notice. If only he'd cut down and all the rambling it might have been interesting, unfortunately the buried thriller bit is the best part and the marriage part is where he rambles. If this book were a conversation it'd be with someone who kept going off on a tangent every time they got to something interesting, forcing you to finally scream at them to GET TO THE POINT!!

 

Another problem I have with this novel is Lisey's memories are boring, Lisey's life is boring. Scott seems more interesting and his life seemed like it might have been exciting, so I think I'd have liked this book better if it was about Scott, Scott's Story maybe. Scott mourning boring Lisey. I'd have preferred that. The only other way would be cutting. A Landon hobby. Cutting the book down that is, cutting out the boring bits, most of it's boring and the only cure I can think of is it should be whittled down with a sharp knife to about 285 pages instead of the bloated 560. Take the Yum-Yum tree chapter, it starts on page 228 but it takes till about 249 to really get interesting, and the interesting bit is all too short. There's far too much rambling.

 

And so I was not enjoying it as I read it for the most part and I got cranky with it, the Little Lisey language began to bug me, things like Lisey always calling her mother Good Ma, like every other mother in the world must be BAD Ma eh? And using smucking instead of f***ing, oh and the rambling, rambling, rambling.

 

Rambling yes, rambling and rambling and rambling within rambling within rambling, with rambling on the side. Whirlpools of rambling, oceans of it. And since King likes rambling I'm going to ramble too just to see what the fuss is all about.

 

 

Lisey's Story - treeduck's (rambling) book diary

 

All the first two chapters and 66 pages give us are Lisey sorting through some magazines after talking to her sister then reliving the moment her husband was shot and having a dream of him in the hospital. That's all. That's what I call dragging it out and padding it out with waffle. This 66 pages could have been 16 very easily.

 

We do get some information though, as well as being introduced to the secret language of Lisey's marriage, but in a way that makes me think us constant readers are kind of unwanted outsiders; unexplained phrases drop here and there, with an unspoken promise of a full explanation later. The information is simple at the two chapter point: Lisey is the widow of a big noise in the literary stratosphere and it appears he's made some kind of deal with the devil, or his dark side makes him pay for ideas or something.

 

Right away it occurred to me that Scott (the former Big Noise) is really Stephen King and Lisey is his wife Tabby. King has denied this, I think, but that's the way it seems. I wonder if Steve made a deal with the devil at some lonely Maine cross-roads in 1970 to make him the hugest author on earth? Does Steve have his secret dark place? is this an autobiography??

 

Ok now the next chapter hooked me in, Lisey looking for the silver spade gets two troubling phone calls, one from one of her sisters and one from a man who reminds me of John Shooter from The Secret Garden. Things got interesting here. Following that the "Blood-Bool" emergency room chapter was pretty good too. At this point the book settles down nicely. It's ok only ok though, remember my expectations were low.

 

The rest of the "Blood-Bool" chapter describes Lisey recalling the original Blood-Bool incident and this is slightly drawn out but not like in chapter 1 and 2. So that's where I'm at, the end of Part 1.

 

Part two starts out with a very drab chapter with King dropping clues that fail to get to the heart of this Lisey matter, and he keeps on dropping these hints to the point of annoyance then refuses to explain anything clearly; hints about purple curtains and where the stations of the blood bools lead, her long boy with the piebald side, Scott's Wolverine-like healing factor and his mysterious disappearances, no eating oranges? after sunset, no eating at all after midnight, none of it explained (probably till right at the end, cut to the f***ing chase Kingy) and so on. Also these little things that are more important than they seem to be become frustrating to read about, like Lisey smoking cigs again after seven years or so to bring back a memory, Steve doesn't half make a meal of all this without really giving us much after leading us very slowly by the nose through Lisey's head, Arrrgghhh, don't you understand me???

 

Ah well... Once we get through to the deeper than deep Delores Claibourne-like Lisey reveries to the Dark Half/Secret Window, Secret Garden part, the crazy guy trying to terrorize Lisey and Woodbody's part in it, beginning with the dead cat in the mail box, King stalls again. and this is a good example of what I've been talking about.

 

The Old King would have described the cat and had Lisey throw it in the trash in one line and move us forward to the phone call and push the plot on. The new King describes Lisey cleaning the mailbox right down to the make of detergent, gloves, trash bags and wash rag and right after that she sits down to a hearty meal. Talk about frustrating, the story finally starts moving and he deliberately slows it down with useless description, where's the editor???

 

(am I rambling enough yet?)

 

The "phoning the cops" chapter is another snoozer that you just want to get past so you can get to the plot, if there is one. The following chapter is the yum-yum tree one which I mentioned above, another snoozer with a good bit about 20 pages in...yawn...so you can see what I'm saying here, right? Bitch, bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan.

 

Chapter Nine wow finally a chapter that gets on with the story, this is ok and flows nicely, no rolling my eyes during this one. In the end though all we get is a low-key villain in a fairly unremarkable scene. Maybe this story just isn't so good. Even when it gets going it's pretty weak, come back Insomnia all is forgiven. And so the chapters come, the next one is about 70 pages long, that's gonna be great...King would probably call me ducksmucky if he ever saw this rambling thing of mine...

 

This book could have been good though, if it had been called Scott's Story, or Lisey was the one with the bad gunky family. It could have been good if he'd dumped the whole idea of the marriage memory montage and just concentrated on Boo'Ya Moon. If this novel had been cut down or if he'd concentrated on Boo'Ya Moon from the start instead of hiding it and hinting at it like a teasing tart, this might have turned into something pretty good. Chapter 10, the 70 page chapter drags badly for the first 30 of it's 70 pages, as King hints and hints about Boo'ya Moon and procrastinates the pages away, but once we get past all the 30 pages it's actually good, the best part of the book so far. Looking for good parts in this book though is like prospecting for gold, hard and slow work.

 

So Lisey is obviously going to go to Scott's healing pool in Boo'Ya Moon (I like that name actually). This is dragged out as well in what seemed like a very long 50 page chapter 11. Slow, slow slow, I mean it's not a terrible experience reading this novel, but I've not exactly felt like my hands were nailed to the page. I've read this is in drib and drabs, some days not even reading any at all. If this was something I really liked, something that really gripped me I'd have finished it days and day ago.

 

What's next? Sort out the catatonic sister? And then sort out the villain. Probably banish him to Boo'ya Moon or send for the long boy and introduce him to the bad gunky. So it's not exactly unpredictable either.

 

I remembered about the TV no being on in Scott's room, so at least I was paying attention when I read that.

 

So the catatonic sister is sorted out and those two sister chapters were kind of fun, but I didn't feel involved with the characters like I have with past King stories. I could see where the heartfelt moments were meant to be but it all kind of felt flat to me. Still at least the book is more interesting by this point in the story. So now they're gonna fix the bad guy, who has conveniently been absent during these last few chapters. He's a fairly weak villain and only plays a very small part in this story so his demise won't really amount to much in terms of a story peak. I'm not sure what the ending will be with still 100 pages to go. Can't believe how this book has dragged.

 

Ok so that's it end of diary, except to say that Part 3 read like an anticlimatic epilogue, that dragged and dragged and dragged.

 

Just to sum up...

 

About 80% of Lisey's story was like reading a manual called "Discussing 300,000 shades of grey concrete" and it never got any better but I'm not disappointed, my expectations as I said, were low anyway as I had my doubts before I started it. There's some good bits, some ok parts here and there, but I got what I expected: a very dull read. It's not King's very worst nevel but it's one of his weakest and one his most very boring. My advice is only read this book if you're seriously curious or you just want to read everything by King.

 

One more thing, well a couple more things. There's a line in it right near the end that got my attention, on page 551, Lisey is reading "Lisey's Story" the note that Scott left her in Boo'Ya Moon and she's thinking to herself, it goes: She dropped her eyes to the final pages, determined that if she must finish he would do so as quickly as she could. I know exactly how you feel Lisey!!

 

Finally, I feel a little bad about what I said about King editing this book now. He claims in the author's note at the end, that the book WAS edited down! Well I'd have hated to read the longer version Steve, so don't EVER publish the unexpurgated version with all the bad gunky in it, whatever you do...

 

(yes and i'll cut my own crap down to size next time too, thank you)

 

Damn I had to edit the post because I forgot to put in the picture of the book, which I like to do.

 

Edited May 5, 2009 by treeduck

[Dweezil]

Hey ducky.

 

I'm too lazy to go through the whole thread.

Just about finished reading Tommyknockers.

I find it a lot of inner dialogue for a simple story.

Wait. That might not make sense. Hmm. I just think it's not that great.

What's your take on it?

 

 

 

*I read it in between reading another book so it's taking me some time so don't tell me the end!!

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Mrs. Huck Rogers @ Jun 4 2009, 11:19 PM)

Hey ducky. I'm too lazy to go through the whole thread. Just about finished reading Tommyknockers. I find it a lot of inner dialogue for a simple story. Wait. That might not make sense. Hmm. I just think it's not that great. What's your take on it? *I read it in between reading another book so it's taking me some time so don't tell me the end!!

Well I haven't read that one for a long time, 1988, and it's still on my list to read for this thread. I remember it being both good and bad, there are things I really liked about it and things I didn't. It's one of those novels that isn't so popular with fans I think, but overall I enjoyed it...but that was 20 years ago (doesn't seem that long ago though).

[Prince Sphinc-Tor]

Right now I'm just about done with From a Buick 8.

 

Anyone else read it?

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ Jul 14 2009, 04:29 PM)

Right now I'm just about done with From a Buick 8. Anyone else read it?

Yeah I featured this book in this thread a while back and it's my candidate for the worst King book ever. Check back in the thread for details, it bored the pants off me.

[Prince Sphinc-Tor]

[Prince Sphinc-Tor]

QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 24 2006, 03:52 PM)

Ok I'm in the middle of From a Buick 8 and the unthinkable has happened!! I'm reading a Stephen King book that's more boring than Bag of Bones. How can this be, especially when the subject matter (a spooky car) interests me so much more? Well the problem here is there's not enough story in this for a novel length book. It's a short story that's been extended and therefore padded out with lots and lots of blah blah blah. King goes off on annoying tangents all over the place when you just wish he'd get on with it. King also goes to great lengths to show just how much research he's done and it feels like homework to read these parts. The whole thing feels like an exercise in fact with it's clever Now and Then chapter headings and flashback style, it's almost like a demonstration follow-up fictional example to his On-Writing instructional book. At least bag of Bones felt like a real novel. The good news is the best chapter I've read so far (the dessection of an alien monstrosity that the car brought) was the latest one so maybe it'll improve from here, so far though NOT so good...

I agree 100% and your review is exactly what I was thinking in that it seems like it should have been a short story but he just got out of control and it turned into a big huge rambling story about some boring cops with a the occasional sprinkling of something interesting.

 

It was driving me crazy because you knew somethings were gonna happen but it took about 50 pages of babble to get to it, and then it wasn't even fulfilling and left you wanting more but it was another 100 pages before the same thing happened and the cycle repeated.

 

However....I did like the last part of the story...after the car tried to suck in the kid and the cop. I don't know why...maybe because I knew there was no more to the story and the cycle had ended and so had the book. In any case....I liked the last 20 or 30 pages.

 

If he cut 200 pages out of the story I think it would have been better, but I don't feel it was his worst book (I haven't read everything of course).

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ Jul 15 2009, 06:34 PM)

QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 24 2006, 03:52 PM) Ok I'm in the middle of From a Buick 8 and the unthinkable has happened!! I'm reading a Stephen King book that's more boring than Bag of Bones. How can this be, especially when the subject matter (a spooky car) interests me so much more? Well the problem here is there's not enough story in this for a novel length book. It's a short story that's been extended and therefore padded out with lots and lots of blah blah blah. King goes off on annoying tangents all over the place when you just wish he'd get on with it. King also goes to great lengths to show just how much research he's done and it feels like homework to read these parts. The whole thing feels like an exercise in fact with it's clever Now and Then chapter headings and flashback style, it's almost like a demonstration follow-up fictional example to his On-Writing instructional book. At least bag of Bones felt like a real novel. The good news is the best chapter I've read so far (the dessection of an alien monstrosity that the car brought) was the latest one so maybe it'll improve from here, so far though NOT so good... I agree 100% and your review is exactly what I was thinking in that it seems like it should have been a short story but he just got out of control and it turned into a big huge rambling story about some boring cops with a the occasional sprinkling of something interesting.   It was driving me crazy because you knew somethings were gonna happen but it took about 50 pages of babble to get to it, and then it wasn't even fulfilling and left you wanting more but it was another 100 pages before the same thing happened and the cycle repeated.   However....I did like the last part of the story...after the car tried to suck in the kid and the cop. I don't know why...maybe because I knew there was no more to the story and the cycle had ended and so had the book. In any case....I liked the last 20 or 30 pages.   If he cut 200 pages out of the story I think it would have been better, but I don't feel it was his worst book (I haven't read everything of course). I wanted that car to make ALL those cops disappear by about page 100 so it would just end...

[Prince Sphinc-Tor]

QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 20 2006, 01:48 PM)

Well it just so happens that Salem's Lot is my absolute favourite King novel

Mine as well.

 

I read it twice last year alone, and plan on reading it again (someday) as I would like to attempt a map of the town since there are so many goegraphical references.

 

I love the town itself as much as the story, hell, the town is so much the story.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ Jul 21 2009, 06:00 AM)

QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 20 2006, 01:48 PM) Well it just so happens that Salem's Lot is my absolute favourite King novel  Mine as well.   I read it twice last year alone, and plan on reading it again (someday) as I would like to attempt a map of the town since there are so many goegraphical references.   I love the town itself as much as the story, hell, the town is so much the story. Yeah the town plays a huge role in the story, it's like a character itself, same with the Marsten House.

[Mara]

Have you gotten around to Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales yet? I was sooooo disappointed in this collection. 1408 was about the only story in the book I found halfway original or decent - and I have heard that the movie is pretty good. Edited July 29, 2009 by Mara

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Mara @ Jul 29 2009, 08:44 AM)

Have you gotten around to Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales yet? I was sooooo disappointed in this collection. 1408 was about the only story in the book I found halfway original or decent - and I have heard that the movie is pretty good.

Yeah I read that a while ago, about early 2007, it's in the thread here somewhere. I thought it was pretty good overall. My favourites from this are the Little Sisters of Eluria, The Man in the Black Suit, The Road Virus Heads North, 1408 and Autopsy Room Four.

 

Generally though King's collections have got weaker...

[treeduck]

I've had a break from the King fest lately as I've been reading other things. I'll come back to this and finish thewhole thing off completely in the not too distant future. Before I disappear again from the thread though and go back to reading some other stuff, I do want to read a couple of King things...including the Cycle of the Werewolf...my copy looks like this...

 

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7961/cycle.jpg

 

I've never read this one at all, at the time in the 80s I just dismissed it as an expensive picture book. I did see Silver Bullet though, but I've completely forgotten it.

 

I decided to read this when I found this old unread copy I picked up cheap in the 90s and didn't quite get around to reading even then.

 

It's pretty thin so it'll be nice and quick...

[nobodys hero]

I just finished Under the Dome. It reminded me of King's earlier works, so I really liked it. It was over a 1000 pages long though.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (nobodys hero @ Jan 10 2010, 01:46 PM)

I just finished Under the Dome. It reminded me of King's earlier works, so I really liked it. It was over a 1000 pages long though.

I've got my copy ready to go, but I doubt I'll read it for about 6-8 months, maybe longer...

 

[Spindrift82]

QUOTE (treeduck @ Jan 10 2010, 03:27 PM)

QUOTE (nobodys hero @ Jan 10 2010, 01:46 PM) I just finished Under the Dome.  It reminded me  of King's earlier works, so I really liked it. It was over a 1000 pages long though. I've got my copy ready to go, but I doubt I'll read it for about 6-8 months, maybe longer...   I'm reading it now. Almost 550 pages in. It reminds me of It, in that it's really long but you're mesmerized by every word.   I'm hoping that I'll finish it by Friday, but it's a pretty big book. So far, it stands up to anything King wrote in his classic period, though.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Spindrift82 @ Jan 10 2010, 11:17 PM)

QUOTE (treeduck @ Jan 10 2010, 03:27 PM) QUOTE (nobodys hero @ Jan 10 2010, 01:46 PM) I just finished Under the Dome.  It reminded me  of King's earlier works, so I really liked it. It was over a 1000 pages long though. I've got my copy ready to go, but I doubt I'll read it for about 6-8 months, maybe longer...   I'm reading it now. Almost 550 pages in. It reminds me of It, in that it's really long but you're mesmerized by every word.   I'm hoping that I'll finish it by Friday, but it's a pretty big book. So far, it stands up to anything King wrote in his classic period, though.   Whoops I misread what you put...

Edited January 11, 2010 by treeduck

[treeduck]

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7961/cycle.jpg

 

Well so much for that. The Cycle of the Werewolf is really just a short story padded out with lots of illustratations and blank pages with each chapter a concise account of each month's werewolf attack. So no overwritten nonsense in this book then? Not this time but you might be surprised to learn that Steve is still guilty of getting carried away when you find out that this project was originally only supposed to be a calendar with a few captions...

 

One other reason I didn't buy this book is that at the time was after a spate of werewolf films I was bit bored of the whole sub-genre. And there's nothing new been brought to the table here at all. It's an ok read but probably not worthy of being released as a book in it's own right, it would have been great in collection though.

 

King is planning a new werewolf project set in Roland's Midworld. He had a poll on his website for fans to vote for which project he should work on next, the Midworld story or a sequel to The Shining. I think it ended up a tie.

[treeduck]

The other King book I wanted to read now is:

 

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4905/wasteq.jpg

 

 

The third book in the Dark Tower Series. I've yet to read the last three volumes but I read this back in 1991. I just wanted to revisit this one before I finish off the series later on.

 

This volume I thought was very good though not as good as The Drawing of the Three or Wizard and Glass.

 

Oh and that pic shows what my own copy looks like. It's nicely illustrated like Cycle of the Werewolf, but unlike COTW it's a big thick volume...

Edited January 12, 2010 by treeduck

[GhostGirl]

I read the first few pages of Under the Dome at the bookstore yesterday. I really think I'd like to read this one.

 

Oh, and I may have mentioned it already, but I really enjoyed Salem's Lot, which I finished recently.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (GhostGirl @ Jan 12 2010, 10:48 AM)

I read the first few pages of Under the Dome at the bookstore yesterday. I really think I'd like to read this one. Oh, and I may have mentioned it already, but I really enjoyed Salem's Lot, which I finished recently.

Yeah I saw you mentioned that one, it's great isn't it? It's spooky and yet it's sophisticated, subtle yet exciting. I really get drawn into it like I'm one of the Ben Mears' vampire survivors myself. The town seems alive with suspicsion, things going on unseen, shadows beneath the surface.

 

It's amazing really that King in his early 20s, writing at night after a long day at the laundry, was pretty much the fully-formed story-telling machine he was later to become.

[Mr. Not]

I'm reading Gerald's game, I read the first 170 pages a month back and haven't gotten back into it. I really want to though.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (KennethRush @ Jan 16 2010, 01:32 PM)

I'm reading Gerald's game, I read the first 170 pages a month back and haven't gotten back into it. I really want to though.

I read Gerald's Game and posted my thought on it in this thread. If you want to boost your interest have a look. Of course it might dash your interest altogether...

 

 

Meanwhile I've not started the Waste Lands yet...